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Sing these creative marketing ideas from the rooftops to get your company’s name out there.
Marketing is the landscape of our modern lives. It involves exploring your emotions and serving the people you care about.
In 2022, creating a smart ad is only half the battle. The real war is won when you find a way to rise above the thousands of other ads your customers see daily. That path is paved with pure, unfettered creativity because human beings are attracted to creativity more than anything else.
But sometimes, you get bogged down in numbers and analytics that sap away all your magical creative marketing juices. And, suddenly, you feel like Harry Potter without his magic wand.
But don’t worry!
All you need is a creative push to kick your marketing strategy back on track.
And lucky for you, we’ve got innovative marketing ideas aplenty to help you create marketing campaigns that are so off the cuff that they stay in the viewer’s memory for a long time, generate more leads and increase online sales.
Let’s get started.
1. Conduct market research
Careful market research can direct you to the right path. Use surveys, join forums and public groups, spy on your competitors on social media, and read reviews to understand your target audience. What type of content they like to see, what features they’re looking for in products, and what promotions and discounts they’re attracted to. Learn about their preferences and challenges. In this way, you can gear your marketing messaging toward your target audience.
2. Aggregate awesomeness from other sources
Another one of the best marketing ideas is to curate quality content from elsewhere. No, it’s not stealing; it’s called creative theft if done properly. It’s completely kosher to borrow content from other sources. The best place to start is from SEO Reddit AMAs. Read the content posted on various Reddit forum threads, Quora groups, social channels of big brands, books, etc., and put it all together to make a super guide or a new social media post. Give credits where it’s due. It’s the best way to create authenticity and avoid copyright issues.
3. Build an audience
All companies have customers. Lucky companies have fans. But the most fortunate companies have audiences. An audience can be your secret weapon. A lot of businesses still spend big bucks to reach people, they pull out a huge wad of cash, and place some ads. But this approach is expensive and doesn’t guarantee to reach the right people.
Instead of going out to reach people, you want people to come to you on their own to see what you have to say.
Building an audience means you don’t have to buy people’s attention–they genuinely give it to you without any bargain. This is the most receptive group of potential customers you’ll ever have. So build an audience. Speak, write, blog, tweet, make videos–whatever.
Share valuable information and you’ll slowly but surely build a loyal audience. And when you get the word out, the right people will already be listening.
4. Microsites (One of undisclosed but powerful marketing ideas)
Give your well-oiled marketing strategy a new spice of life by building a highly-engaged microsite: a brand-specific website (or a single web page) used to promote individual products/events/campaigns. Microsites are non-application-based, information-laden sites hosted on a company’s domain or subdomain with a different URL to engage as many users as possible.
For example, BMW has a microsite (its own domain not hosted under a sub-domain or a sub-directory of the main BMW website) dedicated to its X-series cars for Indian users.
In a nutshell, microsites give freedom in designing a brand-specific experience, lead generation, and have virality potential.
5. Establish brand authority in your niche
Own a unique voice and personality to win customers in today’s cluttered marketplace. You must stand for something that matters, and it should also have a clear and credible voice.
When establishing your brand as an authority in your niche, follow these principles:
- Establish the right identity by asking yourself who you want to be or what you want to represent
- You are what you stand for: when crafting a message, ensure that you stand for something deliberate.
- Your words matter, and the context in which they’re used should match your brand identity.
- Tailor personalize experiences according to your target audience.
Establishing a brand authority in your niche might be difficult for some businesses. It requires consistency and the right content strategy. Starting out can be challenging because you don’t have enough authority already to show Google that you are an expert in your field.
You’ll want to focus on providing one piece of valuable content to the community every week. You can share blog posts, FAQs, social media posts, tutorial videos, etc. When customers trust your brand, they’re likely to spiel about it in their circle, thus establishing your brand’s longevity.
6. Watch your tone of voice – conversational is golden
When we try to show up as an authoritative brand, we often use a corporate tone to communicate. The tone that’s dense, complicated, and stuffed with tangled vocabulary and jargon.
None of your users would like to hear that robotic tone; they’re human and want to communicate with another human. Substitute the corporate tone with a warm, conversational tone that relies on four foundations: authenticity, honesty, enthusiasm, and intelligence.
- Write as though you are communicating with a friend.
- Don’t use erudite, fancy words.
- Don’t write a paragraph that’s full of marketing jargon.
- Don’t lecture, converse.
- Consider seventh-grade reading level. If it’s in the 13th grade, you’ve got a problem. Cut out the big words; go for shorter, clearer sentences.
- Show some skin (metaphorical, of course) – show that you aren’t a robot. Express your brand personality like real humans. Don’t be afraid to have some fun.
7. Perfect your elevator pitch
An elevator pitch respond to the question, “so, what do you do?” – it’s a clear, persuasive company description that highlights Unique Selling Points.
Make sure it doesn’t sound too complex or confusing because you have a short time to convey your pitch to your audience. The best elevator pitches are succinct and tell a story that leaves the listener wanting more. Emotionally-charged language can create a personal connection with the listener.
The following are some tips on how to perfect your brand elevator pitch:
- Express in three sentences who you are, what you do, and why it matters
- Keep it personal, genuine, and interesting.
- Keep it all about your audience – they should be more excited than you.
- Use active verbs
8. Shape up your marketing copy
How often do you do a double-take on some posters when you’re walking down the street? And you abruptly say, Bravo, copywriter!
Your marketing copy can make or break your advertising/marketing campaign. It doesn’t necessarily have to be stylish, but it should make the audience feel a range of emotions. It should create a connection between your product and the consumer’s problem, build relationships, and get people talking.
A legendary copywriter once said,
A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.
David Ogilvy
Always try to create the shipshape copy. It should be uncluttered, precise, and clear. Check for any clunky sentences or phrases that don’t sound natural when spoken. Keep a sharp eye on wordiness; aim to write around 20 words in a sentence, and for every 100 words, there should be about 8-10 sentences in total, and must add a subheading after 300 words.
9. Make things a bit funny
Being serious all the time can bore your customers. Sometimes, an offbeat, humorous tone can be effective in nudging someone to buy from you.
Humor in the content can help people remember things better.
Add a good dose of humor: some punch lines and funny pictures can help you bring a smile to their face. You can try memes in marketing – it’s one of the proven marketing ideas. The key here is not just adding humor but also making sure it’s relevant, so the reader doesn’t stop reading.
10. Leverage the power of videos
Videos have a higher retention ratio than other content forms on the web; it’s 93% more memorable and generates more shares. It takes into account all of your senses, so it offers a more profound and personal experience to the viewer.
Marketing videos can take many forms: tutorials, customer testimonials, interviews, live streams, product demos, company stories, blooper videos, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, Q&A videos, funny commercials, TikTok remixes, podcasts, behind-the-scenes footage from your business, etc.
11. Tell doozie stories
Storytelling is a big part of any marketing strategy, but emotional storytelling goes a step further to really connect with the audience. A powerful story can deepen engagement, clarify values and beliefs, create social expectations and continue the customer’s journey. Create an emotional storytelling campaign after knowing your client base and targeting their specific pain points.
Disney World, Nike ads, Coca-Cola Happiness Machine, and Dove Real Beauty Sketches are some of the best-known storytelling campaigns.
Here’s an example of a Coca-Cola design campaign in which people send greeting messages to others via can.
Image source: Adweek
12. Think like your customers
If you have seen the movie “Being John Malkovich,” you might remember how people climb through a small hidden door to get inside the mind of actor John Malkovich. It’s a correct visual representation of what marketers should strive to do with customers. Get into their minds by finding your own small hidden door.
The world needs marketers who follow a customer-focused mindset to communicate a reasonable value proposition. When you start thinking about your audience, you’ll learn more things than you would if you tested different things in different places.
13. Try brain engine optimization (one of the marketing ideas that’s proven to work)
“The most important search engine is the one in our minds.”
Jon Bradshaw, the founder of Traction ( a consultancy brand), shared this most profoundly pithy idea.
Today, marketers invest billions of dollars in search engine optimization to easily picture their brands into the buyers’ minds. But they are optimizing the wrong search engine. The right search engine is our brain. Humans are ‘cognitive misers’; we default to simple and fast searches. Our brain retrieves a short list of options from its memory banks and picks the most obvious choice when we want to think of something.
That’s why marketers should focus on optimizing search results inside a buyer’s brain. It’s one of the most creative marketing ideas. Focus on category entry points (CEP) – the cues buyers use to access their memories when faced with a buying situation. These can be internal (e.g., motives, emotions) and external (e.g., location, time of day) that affect buying situations.
Build links between your brand and the CEPs because if you win the mind, you win the market.
14. Learn your customers’ lingo
Read reviews of the similar products you sell to identify “trigger phrases” people use. It’s a set of words that clearly explain a pain point or solution the reviewer had with a product. You can use these phrases in your marketing campaigns to increase their effectiveness. It’s advisable to start with Amazon.
15. Think local
Whatever the intended reach of your business, target your immediate community(your neighbors) and show your investment in its strength. It’s the best way to create buzz and surely one of the proven marketing ideas. Optimize your brand for local SEO, collaborate with other local businesses to cross-promote, target local media to respond to community issues, participate in local fairs/exhibitions, or sponsor a community event.
Once you figure out the rhythms of your neighborhood, you’ll be able to meet your goals. Make sure you have a killer elevator pitch and demonstrate a real commitment to making your business integral to the growth of your local community.
16. Hop on the trend bandwagon
Embracing trends – Twitter hashtags or Google trending keywords – is a good way to keep on top of your customer’s mind. What they want, what aspects of your product/service are most in demand, and what the market’s talking about. See around to find your new creative marketing idea that meets the current trends and leverage it for your business growth.
17. Hashtagify your social media
Using popular or relevant hashtags on social media is a simple marketing tactic for attracting more local or targeted customers. Hashtags help you get the word out about your deals and promotions and bring your significant outcomes. Use the right number of hashtags according to each social platform. For example, use three to four hashtags on Facebook and LinkedIn and 15 to 30 on Instagram for maximum exposure.
18. “Hurry! Time’s running out” Campaigns
Start a social media campaign that creates FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s an excellent way to convince people they’ll miss out on something special if they avoid your offers. Campaigns with a countdown or a timer deadline can create excitement and hype for your brand. It also raises the likelihood of people noticing your product/service. Add a touch of little mystery before launching a new product or business. Launch it big; make it an event everyone can’t stop rambling about.
19. Connect with influencers
Influencer marketing involves partnering with influencers (not celebrities) that can spread messages about your product/services through social media, blogs, podcasts, digital videos, or reviews on retail sites. This leads to increased sales and improved customer engagement depending on how well the content is adapted for different platforms.
There’s no need to hire Kylie Jenners of the world for your campaigns. You’ll find thousands of micro-influencers with valuable followings (and without the million-dollar price tag.) Connect to the influencers who specialize in your industry and have an established relationship with your target audience; send them your products to promote on Instagram and other social media outlets with their following. Pick only those influencers that match the values and vibe of your brand.
20. Provide a referral code to your customers
If customers are raving about you and are eager to share their experience with the world, providing them with a referral code is the best way to get leads. Offer existing customers an incentive to market your business to their network on your behalf. In this way, you’ll get more leads, faster sales cycles, and lure in more consumers/buyers.
21. Create a content marketing plan
Content planning helps you decide what you’ll publish and when based on a content marketing strategy. Create and maintain a list of topics, prioritize what’s best to work on at a given time, and regularly create content. Your content strategy should revolve around each stage of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. You can also create topic clusters or content hubs to improve your SEO efforts to gain more traffic.
22. Lead with thought leadership content
Be a leader in your industry by sharing your innovative ideas and informed educated opinions. Thought leadership content produces a connection and makes you a credible source in your industry. Your every dialogue, blog post, and long-form article should revolve around your expertise and ideas; and are written with a casual, informative, or educative tone. LinkedIn is a great place to start, but you can also change the game through your company’s blog.
23. Content repurposing
Content repurposing is the goldmine for traffic. It’s the art of taking one piece of content and creating several others in one fell swoop – how creative you can get; it’s up to you! You can create infographics, videos, social media graphics, audio downloads, PDF downloads, data visualizations, and lots more with a single blog post. These repurposed content pieces will also help you build links from other platforms to a particular blog post.
24. Publish case studies and white papers
Case studies and white papers are the marks of a professional business. If you want to show off your expertise to potential customers, publish white papers and case studies to tackle complex subjects and make them interesting for them. You can also educate them on a certain topic so they can learn more about it with facts and figures.
25. Embrace Listicles
Piggy-backing on top 10s are listed that can make your title stand out more in search listings. People love lists because they are scannable and quick to read. Try to write a mix of quick, snackable content pieces along with long-form articles to create variety, as it’s the spice of life.
26. Be creative in your graphics
People get bored with text rapidly! To keep visitors reading, add visual elements like infographics, images, gifs, etc., to improve the look and feel of the blog. You can also create playful memes along with some posts that have more meat on their bones. The mini data viz is also a good idea to visualize one data point in an impactful way.
27. QR Codes
It’s common to see a QR code in restaurants or malls to access a sales landing page. QR codes are marketing tactics with no creative limits – you can do anything you like!
This example is a testament to the creativity in marketing via QR codes.
28. Focus on Sustainability
It’s beneficial to show that you uphold a responsibility to improve the environment. A sustainability page on the website creates transparency with your customers that you’re not just greenwashing.
Your sustainability page can include:
- Sustainability goals
- Specific steps your company has taken toward environmental protection
- Any environmental triumphs your company has achieved
- Partnerships with other organizations or companies promoting sustainability
29. Distribute newsletters
Newsletters can help you reach and interact with a broad range of customers. You can send company information, exclusive discounts, new items on the menu, membership offers, updates, etc. Provide your audience with the option to sign up for your newsletters and also allow them to unsubscribe and choose what type of emails they want to read from your company.
30. Be a guest
Guest posting on other sites is a great way to share your interesting perspectives and increase your brand awareness. Either be a guest or invite other writers to share a guest post for your blog. Try a good old-fashioned link swap to give your site a healthy dose of SEO juice. It will improve brand reputation and create a good writing portfolio.
31. Feature UGC (user-generated content)
For many people, a few minutes in the spotlight is superior to any tangible prize. Create a unique hashtag for your brand and ask your community to use that hashtag in their posts. Then feature the most unique and creative user-generated images and videos on your social accounts. It will enhance user engagement and give you a bonus of fresh marketing content.
Kodak’s Instagram feed is entirely made up of user-generated content.
They don’t need to be super creative in their posts to increase engagement. Their followers do the job for them. They use the hashtag #MadeWithKodak in each shot they take in the hopes of being featured on the page. And Kodak features the best ones every day.
32. Street art
Street art is the traditional guerilla marketing strategy that gets you noticed. Get creative with your art, draw something people notice in popular places, and get them talking.
Just like McDonald’s did in this example.
33. Experiential marketing
Experiential or engagement marketing is about creating unique experiences to build emotional and memorable connections between targeted consumers and brands. These efforts may take several forms, such as digital or live marketing.
Connect with consumers by giving them a dynamic experience in different ways like Kiosks, pop-up stores or activities, sponsoring/hosting musical events or workshops, launch parties, and using interactive technology to generate excitement. Create campaigns with all the trimmings of a well-devised, carefully executed, and emotionally powerful experiential stunt.
A great example of experiential marketing which I personally admire was the interactive Panel launched by Nutella in Amsterdam with JCDecaux Netherlands. The panel was set to brighten up commuters’ day with heartwarming compliments.
34. Go out-of-home
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising refers to projecting an ad onto buildings in busy areas. But before pointing any projectors check your local laws. You can also try digital billboards or 3D anamorphic projections to blow away people with your creativity. Make your OOH campaigns so irresistible that people share them on social media.
Check out this digital billboard for BBC’s Dracula. It went viral on social media because of its creative use of AI technology that changes the billboard as the sunsets. It made the rounds globally.
35. Answer FAQs before they ask them
You’re not a mind-reader, but if you try that brain engine optimization idea that’s mentioned above, you can create some possible questions for your target audience they might ask before they interact with your product or service. Answer the questions by creating an FAQ section on your website or a video and share it on your social.
36. Create an interactive buying experience with Augmented Reality
With the increase of Metaverse buzz in the marketing world, augmented reality is also growing in popularity. Marketers believe it will soon be a common occurrence, and most retail brands use this technology to provide personalized shopping experiences to their customers. From trying on clothes to set up new furniture in your home, Augmented Reality based marketing has no limit in creativity.
Here’s an example of IKEA furniture shopping experience using AR technology:
37. Lure new customers with free stuff
Free stuff and free samples generally hold significant appeal and many businesses consider them a successful marketing tactic. Especially if you are a new brand and want to make a loyal fan base, make some smaller versions of your giveaway offers and give them as gifts in other orders. For consumable products, try offering free samples at stores or send product samples to influencers and ask them to post a review to collect some UGC for your brand.
38. Gamification
Add interactive branded games to your marketing campaigns to create fun and memorable experiences for your customers. You can add these games to a landing page, share them on social media, or make an app. Make it fun and memorable and offer incentives when relevant. A simple punch card idea with a QR code that takes them to a fun short game to win reward points.
Here’s an example of a game from Email Monks.
39. Pitch journalists on HARO
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a service that connects journalists and brands to create expert articles. This is the shortcut strategy to get published on big brands and media outlets. Sign up to receive emails three times a day with a list of queries in various categories.
There’s no guarantee your pitch will be selected, but you can increase your odds of success with the quality of your words, level of research, and a quick response time. Pitch to relevant queries you’re qualified to comment on, follow any instructions to meet the requirements, and provide your answer showcasing your expertise in the field. Vague pitches like, “I work in the industry, and I’m experienced to provide you with some information. Call me at XYZ number,” is guaranteed to be ignored.
40. Savor the 4-1-1 concept
Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping introduced this concept. It’s a social media content calendar strategy that dictates what types and how many pieces of content should be shared on social media.
- 4 content pieces should be from other industry influencers
- 1 should be your own educational content
- 1 should be promotional (coupon, product news, press release)
The philosophy behind the concept is that when you share industry thought leadership, you’re building relationships and a reputation that comes in handy in the long haul.
41. Don’t be selfish
Marketing doesn’t have to be selfish. It’s the generous act of helping others acquire what’s better for them, even if they don’t know. It involves creating honest stories that resonate with humans, offering solutions and opportunities to solve their problems. Build something that people would miss if it were gone, that gives them meaning, connection, and possibility.
The other kind of marketing involves: the hype, scams, and pressure – thrives on selfishness.
It doesn’t work in the long run.
42. Measure what works and refine the strategies with time
Apart from using different strategies to grow your small business, you must measure what’s working for you. For example, if you create a customer loyalty program and find it’s not improving customer retention, you may need to change your strategy. Maybe try getting a CRM and engaging with your customers regularly through an email campaign.
Hypabeez is your digital partner for all creative marketing campaigns
The marketing strategies and campaigns should be given the importance in business of all sizes. If you don’t have a marketing team yet, let Hypabeez be your extended team. We’ll help you with social media advertising, search engine marketing, SEO, conversion tracking, content marketing or anything synonymous with growth.
